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Albright defends Hillary's Iran vote

From NBC/NJ's Mike MemoliHOOKSETT, NH -- Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright today said that Hillary Clinton has been "very clear" in stating that she believes President Bush cannot go to war without congressional authorization.

Albright, who was campaigning for Clinton here in New Hampshire, also defended the senator's vote on the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, which her rivals have said warned will be used by Bush as justification for military action. "[The vote] was one in order to make very clear that the [Iranian] Revolutionary Guard was one of the most extremist groups within Iran and that it was important to sanction them in order to be able to move toward robust diplomacy," Albright said in an interview.

Albright also noted that Clinton spoke on the Senate floor in February to say she believed Bush couldn't go to war without Senate authorization. And she pointed to Clinton's co-sponsoring an amendment by Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) stipulating that no federal funds could be used for military action in Iran. "So I think she's made her position very clear," Albright said. "She is against the President using force in Iran without using any kind of congressional authorization. And she has made very clear that she believes that robust diplomacy needs to be used in order to make difficult and impossible really for Iran to have a nuclear program."